The TENS device is already on before anything else happens.
The display shows a fixed number that does not change for several seconds, even though the button has been pressed.
A cable is slightly bent near the connector, as if it does not fully align with its own path.
There is no emphasis in that detail, only a bend that does not correct itself.
The contact of the electrodes with the skin does not arrive as a single event.
It arrives as a sequence of small bodily decisions that stop completing themselves fully.
In the room, a fluorescent light produces a constant hum that does not seem to relate to anything, but remains present.
Sometimes its intensity drops without visible reason.
Then it returns to the same level.
The electrical pulse is not perceived as a single closed system.
It is perceived in fragments that do not fully match what the body tries to anticipate.
One corner of the electrode adhesive lifts slightly.
Not enough to fall.
Only enough to exist as an edge.
On the table, a drop of water moves very slowly across the plastic surface, without clear direction, until it stops in a small groove.
The body attempts a finger adjustment.
The gesture begins and does not complete itself.
There is no visible point of rupture.
Only continuity losing precision somewhere in between.
The fluorescent hum continues.
The number on the device remains fixed.
The bent cable does not change.
The water drop does not move again.
One corner of the adhesive lifts slightly.
It does not progress.
It remains in that minimal state of separation that never becomes a rupture.
The fluorescent hum briefly lowers in intensity.
Then returns to the same level.
The number on the display does not change.
The cable keeps its angle.
A faint smell of warm plastic appears and disappears without a clear source.
In the corner of the table, a small accumulation of dust forms an irregular line, as if it had been pushed several times without ever being properly arranged.
The display indicator stays fixed.
The body attempts to turn the neck.
It does not complete the movement.
I am not moving it the neck has locked I should…
